South Korean Grenade found in Belize

A dangerous hand grenade and assorted ammunition were taken off the city streets on Monday night. A concerned citizen, whose identity will not be revealed, handed over a black plastic bag with the grenade as well as ammunition including twelve forty-millimeter rounds, fifty-two seven point six-two rounds, and eighty-six point two-twenty-three rounds of ammunition to the police. Investigations are ongoing and before you breathe a sigh of relief that another one of the explosives from the BATSUB batch that went missing years ago had been accounted for, you may just want to hold your breath a bit longer. The grenade is not of British origin, but was made in South Korea and is the first such explosive to surface in Belize. News Five spoke to B.D.F. Chief of Staff Lieutenant Colonel David Jones about the grenade that is used by the South Korean military and the ammunition for a launcher which is now in their possession.

Lieutenant Colonel David Requena, B.D.F., Chief of Staff

David Requena

“Last night about ten p.m., we got a call from the police department that they had a grenade some forty millimeter ammunition and some assorted small arms. A team from the EOD was dispatched to Belize City and they returned and recovered one hand grenade which is a K400 grenade which is of South Korean origin and twelve-forty millimeter ammunition which is used by a M203 grenade launcher. The twelve-forty millimeter ammunition; presently we are still trying to track it—they are not part of the ammunition that is kept by B.D.F. so we are using all our international sources to try and track down its origin.”

Jose Sanchez

“So we don’t know who uses this particular ammunition at this point?”

Lt. Col. David Requena

“Well there are several countries, but this specific ammunition we are not certain. Definitely, we sure it’s not in Belize—no security forces in Belize have this type of ammunition.”

Jose Sanchez

“I’m assuming there would be markings on the ammunition themselves that they will be able to track it to your manufacture or to country?”

Lt. Col. David Requena

“Yes it has the type of ammunition which is a M118 forty millimeter and date of manufacture and the manufacture detail; all that has been passed on to our international partners to try and verify where it came from.”

Jose Sanchez

“Now you mentioned a grenade and it’s from South Korea, so clearly not one of those that went missing from BATSUB?”

Lt. Col. David Requena

“Well definitely this is a South Korean—it is a K400; it is a fragmentation, defensive grenade, however it is not from the box of twenty-four that went missing.”

Jose Sanchez

“I know it’s early on in the investigation, but I guess it’s too early to say where or which arm forces in the neighboring countries that use this grenade?”

Lt. Col. David Requena

“Yes at this time it is very early in the investigation to find out but I’m pretty sure that our international partners will provide the details and we can provide that.”

Jose Sanchez

“Unfortunately you also mentioned; I believe you said a grenade launcher?”

Lt. Col. David Requena

“The forty millimeter is the ammunition that propels from a grenade launcher. No grenade launcher was found. It was twelve of the ammunition that was used by the grenade launcher.”

Jose Sanchez

“Now I guess, how will you be working with the police? It’s their investigation of course. Will you be holding the grenade for safekeeping? How do you assist the police beignt hat it’s their investigation?”

Lt. Col. David Requena

“Our job as the EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) Team from the B.D.F. is to secure it—hold it until if there is a court case, after conviction if any; or the case dies off, a request is made for destruction which we would conduct on approval from the police and the judiciary system.”

The K400 series hand grenades are standard issue in the South Korean military. The grenade body will produce about one thousand, three hundred fragments. They are also available for export and have been sold to various nations, including in South America. The design has been inspired by the M67 grenade but has been modified over time. The K400 series has an olive drab body with bright yellow markings. The K400 has a lethal radius of ten to fifteen meters.

Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.

@ Perpetual;
your comment does not make sense. How can any government be able to tell you str8 away where an illicit fire arm or ammunition came from when it was not brought into the country by the government. You probably do not know that there are people called gun barons. They are like drug king pins but their in the business of illegal gun running on a commercial scale. That is why you have criminal elements and rebels in many countries with military grade weapons and ammunition.

Atleast that is a whole lot of fire power off the streets. One less gun, bullet and grenade is better than having one more grenade, bullet or fire arm on the street.

We all know that there was a Korean who was caught with a cache of weapons few years ago and there were no charges against him because there was not enough evidence, guess what because he sold all the evidence to the criminals. Government of Belize, please evaluate and re-evaluate the countries security. Do a background check on all investors coming into the country. Give the green light to citizens to invest in their own country..lets open it to Belizeans only investors and tax the hell out of the those who are not paying enough taxes in our country. We in America get paid from foreign investors. Hey BELIZE WAKE UP!!!!

I almost posted due to the level of ignorance on the information being passed.

South Korea was defended by the USA in the KOREAN war. Communism was defeated and South Korea stayed democratic and due to the American Influence the vast majority of South Korean’s speak english. Many of their products have proper english markings.

The part that bothers me the most is that the 40MM shells are being passed as BULLETS just the way things are being reported by the security forces.

These 40MM shells are GRENADES and not simply bullets…..

Hate to quote a movie but to all average joe’s out there, REMEMBER WHEN THE TERMINATOR SHOOTS THE BAD GUY WITH THE BIG SHELLS THAT ARE THE ONLY THING THAT SLOWS DOWN THE BAD GUY? It is these same grenades.

I am trying to remember but there is footage of a cutting of firearms by welders where I think i caught a glympse of a shoulder fired grenade launcher. I am not sure of the exact military denomination but it is NOT an attachment to any other weapon. It had a wood stock, and looked like a very short barrel shotgun except that the tube at the end was much wider… Channel 5 please review your videos of past cutting of firearms and see if you can find it…PERHAPS THE WEAPON HAS ALREADY BEEN DESTROYED and they turned it in because they couldnt use it….You can’t magyver a bike pipe to fire these babies.